“HOROWITZ IS DOING A REVIEW OF CROSSFIRE HURRICANE”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 16, 2020) — On Wednesday’s “Hannity,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R) announced that former FBI James Comey has agreed to testify to the committee on September 30 “without a subpoena” concerning the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign seeking evidence of “collusion” with Russia.
The committee is attempting to secure a similar commitment from former FBI Deputy Director and Acting Director Andrew McCabe, Graham said. Like Comey, McCabe was terminated early in the Trump administration.
Former Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III “has declined the invitation of the committee to appear to explain his report after the Horowitz report,” Graham continued, referring to a 400+-page report issued by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealing numerous missteps by the FBI in securing surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign associate Carter W. Page between 2016 and 2017.. “He says he doesn’t have enough time,” Graham said.
He added he is “looking forward to” Comey’s voluntary testimony. Also invited, Graham said, is former FBI Counterintelligence Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, who sent thousands of anti-Trump texts to his then-paramour, former FBI attorney Lisa Page. Both worked on Crossfire under Mueller, who was brought in to oversee the completion of the probe after Comey was fired on May 9, 2017.
In March 2019, Mueller’s team of 19 prosecutors released a report finding insufficient evidence of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The report reached no conclusion on an allegation against Trump for “obstruction of justice.”
Crossfire Hurricane was reportedly predicated, at least in part, on the “dossier” compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele containing “salacious and unverified” claims about Trump’s dealings with Russia. In recent interviews Graham has said that Steele’s “subsource” for the dossier provided unreliable information which the subsource himself told the FBI in 2017 was not intended to serve as investigative material.
Nevertheless, Graham and other members of Congress have reported, the FBI continued to represent the dossier material as “verified” when applying for the surveillance warrants on Carter Page from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
As for reports that up to 25 cellular phones used by Mueller’s team were erased after the probe was completed, Graham said, “We’re going to ask the people who did the erasing” and “I’m going to ask the Department of Justice and the Inspector General to look at this.”
Toward the conclusion of the interview, Graham said, “Horowitz is doing a review of Crossfire Hurricane, and this could be obstruction of justice; if you know that your phone is going to be looked at for investigative purposes you erase it, then you got a problem [sic].”